and even radical
ideas on the subject of education--and he has, as well as a perfect
readiness to express them, because he considers that time is wasted on
things that are not essential: "What we need," he has said, "are men
capable of doing work. I wouldn't give a penny for the ordinary college
graduate, except those from the institutes of technology. Those coming
up from the ranks are a darned sight better than the others. They aren't
filled up with Latin, philosophy, and the rest of that ninny stuff." A
further remark of his is: "What the country needs now is the practical
skilled engineer, who is capable of doing everything. In three or four
centuries, when the country is settled, and commercialism is diminished,
there will be time for the literary men. At present we want engineers,
industrial men, good business-like managers, and railroad men." It is
hardly to be marvelled at that such views should elicit warm protest,
summed up in the comment: "Mr. Edison and many like him see in reverse
the course of human progress. Invention does not smooth the way for the
practical men and make them possible. There is always too much danger
of neglecting thoughts for things, ideas for machinery. No theory
of education that aggravates this danger is consistent with national
well-being."

Edison is slow to discuss the great mysteries of life, but is of
reverential attitude of mind, and ever tolerant of others' beliefs. He
is not a religious man in the sense of turning to forms and creeds, but,
as might be expected, is inclined as an inventor and creator to argue
from the basis of "design" and thence to infer a designer. "After years
of watching the processes of nature," he says, "I can no more doubt the
existence of an Intelligence that is running things than I do of the
existence of myself. Take, for example, the substance water that forms
the crystals known as ice. Now, there are hundreds of combinations that
form crystals, and every one of them, save ice, sinks in water. Ice, I
say, doesn't, and it is rather lucky for us mortals, for if it had done
so, we would all be dead. Why? Simply because if ice sank to the bottoms
of rivers, lakes, and oceans as fast as it froze, those places would be
frozen up and there would be no water left. That is only one example
out of thousands that to me prove beyond the possibility of a doubt that
some vast Intelligence is governing this and other planets."

A few words as to the domestic and